Pussy Riot to be Free by New Year!

Exciting news for  those of you following the Pussy Riot case, or anyone interested in human rights and freedom of speech, as it was announced this week that the two members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot, who were imprisoned last year after performing a protest song in a church will be free by January.  The move has come as part of an amnesty law, which allows prisoners who have committed non violent crimes and mothers with young children early release.  There has been speculation amongst some of the news sites that this amnesty is a PR move in during the build up to the winter Olympics.  Russia’s recent “anti-gay” bill, which passed unanimously in the State Duma and approved by the Kremlin earlier this year has been met with international criticism,  and it could be argued that this amnesty is an attempt to improve its international profile in advance of the Olympics. According to Billboard.com Putin was very careful to point out that the amnesty was not designed to justify the early release of Pussy Riot, and it is simply that they meet the criteria, along with other 25,000 other prisoners, stating:

“This isn’t a revision of the court verdict. This is an overall decision, which applies to them.”

Whilst it wasn’t a revision of the court verdict, pressure from international media, agencies like Amnesty International as well as The Russian Supreme Court declaring the sentence unlawful can’t have hurt their case either. Unfortunately this does not mean the immediate release of the two imprisoned Pussy Riot members, because, according to Billboard:

 …prison authorities say they are waiting for documents necessary for their release, including birth certificates and other forms of identification, before they are freed.

which has led to concerns here in the Newsnibbles office, as to how the authorities know they have the right people in prison at all… but it’s probably best not to get bogged in semantics, no-one else seems to. On a slightly amusing side note President Obama is sending Billie Jean King as one of as one of the delegation to the Moscow Olympics. Nice one.

 

 




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